Property, Territory, and Peace: Liberal Order and the US-Canada Security Community
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Authors
Troup, Daniel
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
US-Canada Relations , International Security , Civil Liberties , Canadian Political Development
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Abstract
Why and how did the US-Canada security community emerge? This dissertation offers a historical materialist reassessment of peace between Canada and the United States. It contends that the evolution of political policing, informed by the development of social property relations in North America from colonization to the 20th century, represents an underappreciated factor in the transformation of the US-Canada space from a zone of conflict to one of peace. Geopolitically mediated class dynamics shaped the region’s institutions, territoriality, and foreign policies before the community’s emergence. Until the 20th century, governing authorities in the two territories often regarded each other as potential allies of their respective internal enemies including Indigenous peoples, populist agitators, and secessionists. However, the consolidation of transnational industrial capitalism in the region ultimately gave rise to a sense of common cause. Faced with leftist and anti-colonial agitation, the US and Canada began to integrate their security measures. Over time, ideas of national security, and the political policing this entailed, became intertwined with international conflicts and the familiar image of the US-Canada security community as an instance of solidarity against external threats could take hold. But this obscured the persistent relevance of political policing to the community’s operation. This dissertation’s argument engages with theories of liberal peace, both capitalist peace theory and democratic peace theory, as they have been applied to the US-Canada case and beyond. Ultimately, I conclude that it is necessary to supplement these theories with a recognition of how capitalism has shaped the idea of democracy and liberal governance’s internal tension between the suppression of dissent in defence of liberal values and the toleration of dissent as an ideological tenet. When these factors are considered, the US-Canada security community can be understood not simply as an instance of liberal peace, but as a product of a fundamentally capitalist liberal order.
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ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.